Photo Illustration by Lahar Samantarai | The Signal
Fresh legislation authored by Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall aims to decriminalize nearly all the city’s “quality of life” offenses, which, he claims, are targeting marginalized people.
Hall lobbed this ordinance at city hall to repeal 77 of the city code’s 85 charges that, according to his proposal, “encourage pretextual stops, racial and gender bias in policing and often result in harassment.”
In the wake of recent national tragedies regarding police-involved violence, Hall aims to repair citizen-cop relationships, and curb “broken windows policing” — the tactic of honing in on blighted or disorderly neighborhoods — by the Atlanta Police Department, according to Colleen Kiernan, his policy advisor.
This legislation would, if passed, require Atlanta police to acquire warrants before clicking cuffs on people for nonviolent offenses such as shoplifting, defacing property, spitting in public or possessing less than an ounce of marijuana, among dozens of others which would still violate state law.
Kiernan told The Signal that Hall doesn’t expect the legislation to be ratified without some gutting — the current ordinance would strike down the charge of impersonating a police officer. The aim, she said, is to start a larger conversation about how many people are incarcerated for minor crimes.
“If someone is repeatedly in jail for using fighting words or urinating in public or one of the 77 on the list, should they be arrested? Should that behavior be criminalized?,” she said.
Joshua Hinkle, an associate professor of criminology at Georgia State who’s published research on broken-windows policies, said he’s yet to find conclusive evidence that the approach is effective.
“There is fairly clear evidence that the impact of broken windows-based tactics is disproportionately borne by lower income, minority communities where levels of disorder or incivility and minor crime are the highest,” he said. “And clearly enforcing more minor law violations contributes to the overcrowding of our jails, prisons and community corrections.”
According to Kiernan, quality of life code offenders can take up nearly 40 percent of the cells at the Atlanta Detention Center.
“On June 22, of the 875 people in city jail, 341 were in on [quality of life] violations,” she said, citing a “snapshot” date studied by lawmakers.
Georgia State Student Government Association President Fortune Onwuzuruike said he thinks this type of policing is clogging up jails with people who could use rehabilitation, rather than incarceration. Plus, he said, Atlanta police have more important crimes to address.
“We’re filling up our jails for things that don’t need as serious attention as things such as murder,” he said. “And these people might actually need help. I get that [police] are trying to serve justice, but you could do a justice in sending them to a rehab center.”
Hall’s also backing a city plan to install a “pre-arrest diversion” program, which would route people who need help — unhealthy, chemically-dependant, mentally-ill Atlantans — to resources for healing, such as rehab clinics or the hospital.
But no other Atlanta councilmembers have yet publicly supported Hall’s ordinance to decriminalize the charges cited in his ordinance. Steve Smith, executive director for the Atlanta Hotel Council, told Creative Loafing that the local hotel industry wants the city to remain “safe and attractive.”
“We feel very strongly that the ordinances that are on the books allow for the police officers to have the appropriate authority and decision-making around how to handle individuals who may not be appropriate in their behavior,” he told CL.
Kiernan said Hall’s office has heard concerns from other Downtown businesses of “panhandling, prostitution and instances of disorderly conduct.” But, if opposition throws a wrench in plans for the ordinance, Hall’s office still hopes to address these problems without throwing people behind bars, she said.
“Rather than repeal [all the charges], we may need to find some other way to discourage that kind of behavior,” Kiernan said. “No one wants to see anyone defecating in public. Do we need more public restrooms? We need to find out what is going on.”
But, because Hinkle believes Atlanta’s police forces aren’t exploiting broken-window strategies, he said he thinks repealing these charges might not be the game-changer Hall is looking for anyway.
“I’m skeptical that decriminalizing offenses would have a major real-world impact on policing here,” he said.
Georgia State University Police Chief Carlton Mullis told The Signal that some of his force had been training to approach situations with a sensitivity to the needs — psychological or otherwise — of potential arrestees.
“A large number of our police officers are training Crisis Intervention Team members, which tries to divert mental health issues to the hospitals rather than jails,” he said.
Onwuzuruike said it’s important for police to understand these issues “so they don’t give a punishment that’s too severe.”
“I understand justice needs to be served and a little crime is just a bad as a big crime; there’s no better or worse sin,” he said. “But instead of putting all these people in jail, we’re only making these people more upset. Rehabilitation is more important than incarceration.”
